2012 Hot Dawgz and Hand Rails Recap

2012 Hot Dawgz and Hand Rails Results From Bear Mountain

Words: Hondo

Photos: Nick Hamilton and Cameron Strand

Video: Tyler Malay, Paul Heran, Alexandra Erickson, and Matt Mead

Early season rail jams have come a very long way. Long gone are the days of the white ribbon of death leading into a down bar on a sketchy scaffolding setup. Bear Mountain set the pace for legitimizing early season rail jams when they started Hot Dawgz and Hand Rails, and now, in its 9th year, Clayton Shoemaker and his crew have reached a whole new level.

This years HDHR featured a course that was pretty next level as far as rail jams go. The course would have been considered a gnarly one even if it were in the middle of winter. To start things off riders had the option of either hitting a down bar, or a huge wall-ride. Following those features was this crazy parking garage type structure. Dudes had the option to jib the top of it, or hit it like a hip, or jib the top into a transfer. There were a ton of options.

Mike Rav has sick style.PHOTO: Nick Hamilton

Following the Hot Dawgz and Hand Rails formula of years past, riders had a jam session, then a break to groom out the course, and then another session. Some people who were killing the first session include Lucas Magoon with his radical, unique style. No one on earth snowboards like Gooner. Jamie Madrid was riding really well too, she’s pretty damn good. Ryan Paul was stoking the crowd out with his wild flip maneuvers. Chris Brewster, Johnny Brady, Dylan Alito, Justin Fronius, Spencer Shubert, Durrell Williams, Sam Taxwood, Brandon Hobush, and Mike Rav were also crowd favorites (and some of my personal favorites too). All of these guys have an amazing, and totally unique way of snowboarding, and it’s pretty awesome watching it in person. Pretty much everyone was killing it and this would get really long if I listed off everyone that did cool tricks. People are damn good these days…

Pat Moore was in the Art of Flight. He was also in this years Hot Dawgz and Hand Rails. That’s pretty sick.PHOTO: Nick Hamilton

One of the biggest standouts through out the day was watching Pat Moore snowboard. He charged all day. It’s cool that a dude that was in The Art of Flight can still come out to an early season rail jam and kill it. But Pat didn’t win. He didn’t even get top 3. Which is OK.

The dudes and girl that placed totally deserved it. Desiree Melancon took it for the ladies. She was doing cool lipslides and nose presses all day. Ian Sams ended up taking 3rd for the dudes, which he rightfully deserved because he was doing the hardest rail tricks one after another on the down bar all day. I don’t think I saw him miss one. Jaeger Bailey got 2nd place for being able to do the crazy flippy tricks, as well as the really technical rail tricks. I bet we will see cool things from Jaeger in the future. But in the end there could only be one winner, and that was Jonah Owen. After last year, where many people (myself included) believed he got robbed, Jonah was able to come back and take the win. Jonah was crushing it all day. He destroyed the top section with sick wallride tricks, and kept it going by doing cool, crazy shit on the parking structure. If I were a board company team manager, I would be looking to add a new rider. Jonah rips.

Jonah Owen won 10 Gs. Boss.PHOTO: Nick Hamilton

Hot Dawgz and Hand Rails really is an amazing way to start off the season. We’d like to give a huge thanks to Clayton and everyone at Bear for getting us all excited to snowboard, and for putting on this amazing event. They only get better and better each year, and I already can’t wait for next years!